The World Is Ugly But You're Beautiful To Me
by f-lero
Summary: Harry finds a crying Draco Malfoy in the bathroom and comforts him.


"Harry? Are you listening?"

"Hm? Sorry, what did you say?" Hermione sighed deeply.

"Leave that Malfoy alone already." Hermione knew exactly what, or who, had gotten Harry into his thoughts again. For many weeks, he had been wondering the odd behavior of Draco Malfoy. The boy and his Slytherin friends had stopped mocking and bullying Harry and his friends, plus Harry had noticed that the boy had been missing from classes and meals in the Great Hall. From the Marauders' Map, Harry had seen the boy wondering around the castle, when he was supposed to be somewhere else, and there were times when he had completely disappeared, and Harry couldn't understand where he had gone.

Harry shrugged and turned to look at the front of the classroom, where professor Binns was excitedly telling something about something Harry had no idea what it was, he'd lost the plot a long time ago. He didn't even bother to find out since he knew he could copy the notes from Hermione later, as always.

Harry glanced at the red-haired boy sleeping next to him, then at Hermione, who'd already ignored Harry and was now taking notes again.

Harry bowed a bit and took Marauders' Map out of his bag, and spread it on his lap. He tapped it with his wand and whispered:

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Soon the map of Hogwarts had appeared on the parchment. Harry quickly looked at Ron, who was still snoring, and Hermione, who was still writing. He made sure no one was paying attention on him and turned his glance onto the map again.

Soon Harry found who he was looking for. A lonely spot called Draco Malfoy was in the boys' bathroom in the second floor. Harry did realize that Malfoy could've been just on his needs, but for some reason he just _knew_, that the boy was doing something else. What, he didn't know exactly, but undoubtedly something connected to Voldemort. For a long time, Harry had been wondering if Voldemort had given Malfoy some kind of mission to do. He knew the boy's dad was a Death Eater and he was sure the younger Malfoy wasn't completely innocent, either.

Harry tapped the map with his wand again, whispered:  
"Mischief managed" and put the parchment back into his bag.

"Professor Binns?" he called and raised his hand. Suddenly everyone, if wasn't sleeping, paid attention to him. Binns went silent and looked glad. No one ever really asked anything in Binns' classes, and apparently the teacher presumed Harry was interested in the topic he was talking about and wanted to know more.

"Yes, Mr. Potter?"

"Can I go to the bathroom? I'm not feeling very well", Harry said and tried to look nauseas. Professor Binns looked kinda disappointed but said Harry could go and brought him a hall pass in case there were teachers in the hallway.

"Go see madam Pomfrey on your way back", Binns said while Harry was packing his stuff.

"I will, thank you", Harry promised, threw his bag on his shoulder and went out from the classroom. On his way past Hermione, the girl was looking suspicious, but Harry ignored her.

After getting out from the class, Harry made sure the hallway was empty and took out the Marauders' Map again. For his relief, Malfoy was still in the bathroom, so Harry nearly ran a floor down.

Soon he arrived to the bathroom door, luckily without running into teachers or Prefects, because even though he had his hall pass, he didn't wanna run into anyone.

At the door, Harry stopped when he heard sobbing from the bathroom. He stepped in and was shocked when he saw a crying Draco Malfoy sitting on the bathroom floor. The boy didn't seem to have noticed Harry, he was sitting next to the wall, leaned on his knees and sobbed. Harry couldn't understand what had happened, this was so not like Malfoy.

"Malfoy?" Harry asked carefully and stepped closer. Malfoy looked up looking scared and wiped his tears off with his sleeve.

"Potter. What do you want?" he asked but couldn't cover the vibration in his voice.

"I… umm…" Suddenly Harry had forgotten what he came here for.

"Why are you crying?" he asked instead. For a moment Malfoy looked distracted but then looked at Harry angrily.

"That's none of your business."

"Voldemort has given you a mission, hasn't he?" Harry remembered and Malfoy winced at the name Harry said. He looked angry no more and Harry was confused when seeing the total change of Malfoy's attitude. The boy stared at the floor and said quietly:  
"I have no choice. If I don't do it, he'll kill me. He'll kill my whole family."

Malfoy looked up, looked at Harry as for pleading for help.

"You know what he's like. If I don't do as he says, I'll pay for it, my whole family will pay for it, and he'll just get someone else to do the job. I have no choice." Tears got up to his eyes again, he bit his lip and looked down.

Harry was shocked. He couldn't possibly understand what had happened to the Slytherin. He had thought that if anyone, it'd be Malfoy who'd be excited for getting a mission from the Dark Lord, but the boy reacted completely differently. Harry could sense the fear in him. He had never seen Malfoy like this, so scared and crying, so broken. Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for the shivering boy in front of him. This was definitely not the Malfoy Harry had learned to know, who he'd thought he was.

Harry walked next to Malfoy and put his hand on his shoulder. When the boy didn't do anything to shake it off, Harry sat down next to him and carefully petted his back.

"I… I never knew…" Harry said quietly. Malfoy didn't look up but let out a sound that was a mixture of laughter and cry.

"Exactly", he said bitterly, "and neither did anyone else. Everyone presumes for me to be who I am supposed to be, who I'm expected to be. No one's interested in finding out the real me. Draco Malfoy, son of a Death Eater and the Prince of Slytherin. That's who I am to everyone." Harry saw the boy biting his lip again to not to burst out crying.

"I'm sorry", Harry whispered, it was all he could say. He felt so stupid, why hadn't he ever bothered to get to know Malfoy, to actually find out himself, to not just believe everything people said about him.

"I can't do it", Malfoy suddenly sobbed.

"I just can't. Everyone's gonna suffer, but I can't do it, I just _can't!_" He yelled the last word bursting out crying and made Harry startle. At that very moment Harry hated Voldemort more than ever. It broke Harry's heart to see Malfoy like that, and it was all Voldemort's fault. Harry hated how emotionless and cold the man was. He made people do what he wanted and never cared about anyone's feelings. Harry hated that.

Harry didn't even know what Malfoy's mission was but decided not to ask that, at least not know. It didn't matter right now, at the moment all Harry wanted to do was to see a smile on Malfoy's face, see him happy again.

Harry pulled the crying boy into a hug, he didn't stop but instead hugged Harry back. Harry hugged him tightly and petted his back. He didn't know how long they were like that, but at some point Malfoy got his crying under control and for a moment they just sat there, on the cold bathroom floor, hugging each other.

Harry raised his hand and swept a bit of blond hair away from Malfoy's face. The blond looked up and stared at Harry right into his eyes. Harry couldn't not to think about how beautiful eyes the other boy actually had. Perfectly grey like ice but still not cold, the look in his eyes was warm and full of some undefined feeling.

Without saying a word to each other, they leaned closer, eyes were closed and two pairs of lips crashed.

At first, the kiss was light, like asking a permission, but soon deepened, lips were pressed to each other tightly. Harry's hands were still on Malfoy's upper back, went upper to the Slytherin's neck, haroivat the silky, blond hair. He felt the other boy shivering from the touch. Malfoy's hands wrapped on Harry's waist and pulled the raven closer.

The kiss was still deepening, it was almost desperate, like they needed each other more that anything, like the other boy was like oxygen.

Malfoy opened his mouth slightly, letting Harry's tongue in, caressing his own. The blond Slytherin let out a quiet moan and tightened his grip on Harry.

Harry was amazed. This was the first real kiss of his. Before he had only kissed Cho Chang, and that had been kinda disaster, since the girl had started to cry and the kiss had ended sooner than it had begun.

But this, this was something completely different. And not just because Malfoy wasn't crying, at least not at the moment. But the kiss was full of feeling. It seemed like if filled some empty spot in Harry's heart. For the first time he felt _complete_.  
Harry wasn't exactly why that was, he wasn't sure if it was because Malfoy was such a good kisser or because it was Malfoy he was kissing, of all people. Maybe it was both.

Harry wasn't sure how long they had been kissing, but slowly the boys broke the kiss. Harry felt his heart jump when for the first time he saw a real smile on Malfoy's face. His eyes were still sad, though. Harry pulled the boy back into a hug, it broke his heart to see that pain and sorrow in the blond's eyes. At that moment, all Harry wanted was to see the happiness in Malfoy's eyes.¨

Soon, too soon, Malfoy pulled away and stood up. Harry did so, too.

"Malfoy?" Harry said and the other boy looked at him questioningly.

"I… You… I'm trying to say, that…" Harry's tongue seemed to be glued to his mouth, he took a deep breath a couple of times and started over.

"I'm always gonna be here for you, if you need me. You can trust me."

Malfoy smiled sadly.

"You can't help me. No one can. But thanks."

"Let me at least try", Harry pleaded but Malfoy shook his head. He pressed a soft kiss on Harry's lips and said:  
"See ya, Harry." Harry watched as the boy left and touched his lips where Malfoy had kissed him.

"See ya… Draco."


End file.
